Mihai OLOS, born on February 26, 1940, in Ariniș, Maramureș, and passed away on February 22, 2015, in Amoltern, Germany, was a Romanian contemporary visual artist, incorporating elements of experimentation (happening), drawing, painting, sculpture, and digital art into his work. After graduating in 1963, he became a drawing teacher at the Baia Mare Popular Art School, a center with a long artistic tradition, where figures like sculptor Geza Vida, impressionist painter Lidia Agricola, and graphic artist Paul Erdös were leading the branch, emphasizing official, propagandistic art. In 1965, he received one of the workshops at the Artist Colony, which gave him the opportunity to work more intensively. The Pavilion within the Contemporary Art Center housing his workshop is named the Olos Pavilion.
The complex, mysterious way in which Mihai Olos conceived the universe is synthesized in the semiotic and hermeneutic challenge represented by the word ROST. At the level of matter and form, rost is identified with the central element of his artistic morphology – the NODUL (knot). Initially used at the beginning of Olos’ career, the word nod was gradually replaced by rost. In this way, the artist attempts to transcend the folkloric source of the visual element – crucial in the creation of rural architecture and artifacts – toward a diffuse area of infinite ambiguities, metaphors, and wordplay. (Călin DAN)
